Idaho's state mental hospital in Blackfoot, State Hospital South, has seen such major staffing cuts in recent years that it's in danger of losing its accreditation, Rep. Fred Wood, R-Burley, a physician, told JFAC this morning, and the cuts are endangering patient and staff safety. "We've cut 30 some-odd positions in the last three years out of State Hospital South," he said. "If we don't get that staffing level up, we're going to jeopardize accreditation." Wood and Sen. Joyce Broadsword, R-Sagle, crafted a budget proposal for the Health & Welfare Division of Psychiatric Hospitalization for next year that includes adding back 10 of those positions, most of them for direct patient care. They include one registered nurse, one physical therapist, one lab tech, four psychiatric technicians, one licensed practical nurse, one radiological technologist, and one financial technician.

All the money for the new positions would come from state endowment earnings that benefit State Hospital South; not from state general tax funds. "We feel this is on good ground and we should do it," Wood said.

That's the only addition to the division's budget for next year, other than $110,600 in replacement items, including things like new vital sign monitors for State Hospital South and a new 8-passenger van, exterior lighting and safety improvements to the patient seclusion room at State Hospital North. Overall, the division's budget would rise next year by 3.5 percent in state general funds over this year, 5.5 percent in total funds.

The budget was approved on a 19-1 vote, with Sen. Nicole LeFavour, D-Boise, dissenting. She said Idaho has badly underfunded mental health services in recent years, resulting in more psychiatric hospitalization, and more Idahoans with mental illness landing in the state's prisons. Some former residents of the Idaho State School & Hospital are now in the state's maximum security prison, she said. "We have a breakdown in the system and we're failing ... them very tragically." She said, "I am really saddened. I realize it's not within the entire purview of this committee, but it is to some extent, that we would put tax cuts ahead of the well-being of so many families."